THE TOWER

SATURDAY 26TH APRIL 2008

Jacquie returned late Friday evening having visited her Dad, who is a Chelsea Pensioner, and we spent Saturday morning discovering Worcester Cathedral and the city. We climbed the Cathedral tower and were fascinated by the bell ringers practicing on soundless dummy bells, but they were all wired up to computers and able to monitor their all important timing. The view from the top of the tower made the claustrophobic final climb well worth it.. One chap actually proposed to his lady on top of the tower, happily she accepted.

Imagine our surprise whilst wandering through the lovely old streets, to find that Mac & Jac have already opened a Deli. One might think that Jac has already had enough of being a water gypsy and has started an alternative career, but, no, jiust coincidence.

After lunch we moved up to Lowesmoor Basin, just on the northern edge of Worcester City centre, where Viking Boats gave up a helpful and friendly welcome, we fueled and watered and stayed overnight. The local Aldi supermarket was an interesting experience, their grapes were surprisingly tasty.

I just thought that I should mention that we had a problem getting the computer to recognise the T -Mobile Web & Walk modem, Keith from Quidditch said that he has burnt out two connecting cables, and we had previously smelt hot plastic, but couldn't identify where the smell could be coming from. Ashley had been watching TV via the internet and it seems possible that with high transfer rates the cable could overheat. I tried the same cable with the camera and sure enough the computer didn't recognise it. A new cable resolved the problem.

WORCESTER SAUCE

THURSDAY 24TH APRIL 2008

We stopped shortly after passing through Diglis Basin, which Nicholson’s guide described as having bags of charm, full of ramshackle buildings and eccentric boats. Well the ramshackle building, in the main, have either all ready been replaced or are in the process of being replaced with new apartment blocks, which certainly have very little charm. Some of the original warehouses have been converted with a degree of success. A shame but inevitable I guess.

Ashley very expertly brought the boat into the Diglis Basin lock and also had time to capture this image of me letting his Mum do all the work, Nothing new there then.

Jacquie and Ashley deserted me, to travel to London, courtesy of Great Western Trains. So I spent the rest of Thursday and Friday doing the usual maintenance, including changing the engine oil and filters.

SEVERN UP

WEDNESDAY 23RD APRIL 2008

We awoke to the sound of heavy rain on the roof, but again by the time we were ready to descend the last Avon lock that would send us out onto the River Severn, the sun was shining brightly.

We had sixteen and a half miles and one lock to travel to reach Worcester. This is the widest piece of water we are likely to cruise up unless we do The Thames. Fortunately with recent, relatively dry weather and the sunshine, the cruise was delightful and the life jackets that had been deployed were un-necessary.

We stopped for lunch at Upton upon Severn, and again a delightful riverside jumble of buildings, most of them pubs, some not yet reopened following the floods. We moored by the Swan Inn, who had only reopened on Good Friday, they gave us a warm welcome and good beer. Up the High Street we found a great butchers, something that in the south of England we have been deprived off, stuffed lambs hearts for dinner tonight.

We arrived at the huge double Diglis locks just before they closed at 6pm but I had phoned ahead to the lock keeper and he had the left hand lock prepared for us. There were long plastic poles at each end to thread the mooring lines through to stop the boat moving about, but it was a gentle giant of a lock and we smoothly rose to the top. We tied up for the night immediately after the lock and before the entrance to the Worcester and Birmingham Canal.

Following out poor start on the two rivers, wedging under the bridge at Stratford and running aground, Jacquie did admit that in the whole the rivers had been a pleasant and not too scary an experience, apart from witnessing the recovery attempts of a narrow boat that had sunk in January, but we have decided that we do prefer the canals, as there is so much more freedom as to where you can moor, and with more traffic, they feel friendlier.

TEWKESBURY TODAY

TUESDAY 22ND APRIL 2008

A quick wash down of the superstructure before going through Strensham lock as we were meeting, in Tewkesbury, with John and Barbara, friends from our years in the Childrenswear industry, they would also be bringing some chums of theirs, who were visiting from Scotland.

By the time we had got moored up just before the last lock on the Avon, the sun was breaking through. The timing was perfect, when we walked up to the Abbey, our chums were waiting at the front entrance.

The Abbey is inspiring, but not overpowering in its scale and judging by the pictures of the July flood the original builders knew where to place it where the waters wouldn’t get to it.

Amazingly Tewkesbury shows very little of the floods devastation. The town has recovered very well and is a delight.

Our mooring place was perfectly selected with a public bench right alongside the rear deck, so after a sandwich lunch in the garden of the Bear Pub, which was right opposite were Skyy was moored, we returned to the boat for coffee, which was taken in the sunshine.

ERIC PULLS IT OFF

MONDAY 21st APRIL 2008

Can't say much about Sunday, it rained, we puzzled, ate, drank, read and waited patiently for Monday. Ohh !! I nearly forgot Jacquie baked a cake, splendid.

9.30 Monday morning and this sturdy little tug called ERIC hoved into view. A very thick line was thrown to us and the tug lined itself up to pull us off backwards. The line went taut and nothing happened. The tug repositioned itself and again the slack was taken up, again nothing happened for a moment and then the skipper really opened the throttle, the water at the back of the tug boiled, the rear of Skyy healed over and then suddenly the stern slid of the mud and we were free. HOORAY!!!

We waved to the two chaps on Eric as she stomped passed us on the way back to Wyre and we continued at our more stately pace to stop at Pershore for much needed supplies. Nice town, some of the architecture had a Spa like look to it.

We moored for the evening at Strensham Lock and walked into to the village of Eckington. The centre of the village was full of thatched, black & white cottages, a stout Norman church, a little post office. They could have made Larks Rise to Candleford here. The sun had broken through the clouds and it was a beautiful evening. Thank goodness we are on the move again.

GETTING BORED

SATURDAY 19TH APRIL 2008

Rescue arrived in the shape of a narrow boat called Dream Maker, or so we thought, but sadly we had to give up the effort after about 30 minutes. Although we could swing the bow right out across the river we just couldn't get the stern to break free. Thank you, crew of Dream Maker, for your much appreciated efforts.

We are now prepared to wait until Monday morning when we have been promised a tug fron the Avon Authority. Fortunately we filled up with diesel and water and empted to loo tank before we left Evesham. We also have two more 1000 piece puzzles to keep us from going stir crazy.

STUCK IN THE MUD

WEDNESDAY 16TH APRIL 2008

Next stop on the Avon was Bidford, a most attractive village with all the shops that you might need, including a hardware shop and a butcher. However its most important feature is its multi arched bridge built in 1482 by the Monks of Alcester, and still in use by today’s road traffic, I doubt there is much that we can build today that will still be in use in 600 years.

We over nighted in the George Billington lock cut, George died, very young at 37,but he donated the funds for the building of the lock which was completed in 6 months with the help of boys from the local borstal. He was able to see the finished job two weeks before he died. Sadly the very attractive Fish and Anchor Inn is on the other side of the weir stream and was tantalizingly out of reach. Need more wine!!

This lovely river is disappointedly defaced by tattered scraps of plastic festooning the trees and shrubs up to a height of ten feet approx. obviously left behind by last Julys flood. I don’t know how nature will clean up it’s act without the intervention of man who left behind the mess in the first place.

THURSDAY 17TH APRIL 2008

We cruised into the centre of Evesham under the Workmans bridge, which I thought was rather splendid to have been built just to allow the workman to get to work, but on crossing over the bridge I saw that it had been named in honour of the then Mayor, Henry Workman, silly me!!

We moored in the shadow of the Abbey Clock Tower and walked into town and to the station to meet Ashley, Jacquie’s son, much needed reinforcement for the forthcoming trials and tribulations.

The weather in the afternoon was splendid, so we decided to stay put in this great location, and I set about painting out the damaged to the hand rail inflicted by the Stratford, Clopton Bridge.

FRIDAY 18TH APRIL 2008

We left with the intention of staying over night in Wyre Piddle, just because we liked the name of it.

We passed through a couple of locks with beautiful old mill houses alongside before we approached a mooring place to stop for lunch, we discovered it was now a private mooring, we did the right thing and motored on, only to run hard aground.

After much pole pushing, rocking of boat, transferring of weight and revving of engine. Ashley and I got down to our underpants, donned our wellies and entered the water, again after much shoving, heaving , but not sweating this time, we managed to move it about a metre, but it was still stuck fast. The nice man on the end of the phone at The Lower Avon Authority said that if we were still in the same place on Monday, he would get a tug to us. We are doing a puzzle and writing blogs at the moment awaiting a passing boat that might be able to pull us off.